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    Using adhesion to probe viscoelasticity of polymer film surfaces: A quartz crystal microbalance study

    Year: 2002

    Journal: Eur. Phys. J. E 8, 129–136 (2002), 20100827

    Authors: Forrest J.A., Mattsson J., Börjesson L.

    Last authors: L. Börjesson

    Organizations: Department of Physics and Guelph-Waterloo Physics Institute, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, N2L 3G1 and Department of Experimental Physics, Chalmers University of Technology, SE-412 96, G¨oteborg, Sweden

    Country: Sweden

    We have used a quartz crystal microbalance to monitor the adhesion of small particles to the surface of polystyrene films. This technique is shown to provide a signature of viscoelastic relaxation processes at the polymer surface. For Mn values less than 104 and greater than 105, this signature occurs at a temperature ∼ 12.5 K above the measured bulk glass transition temperature, Tg. For intermediate values of Mn however, the relaxation signature occurs at temperatures as low as 7 K above the bulk Tg. This observation suggests a slight decrease in the Tg value near the polymer surface. A model incorporating the effects of enrichment of polymer chain ends at the free surface was considered and found to provide a quantitative description of the data.